‘Chuck vs the Other Guy’ Pits Hero Against Himself

Chucks finds Shaw and Sarah, and as the sound of a firefight breaks out in the background, we know Casey has found the director of The Ring (one of the happiest casting surprises of the season!) and his operatives. It isn’t a flash of the intersect that led Chuck to Shaw, but his natural propensity for puzzles, his ability to understand data and patterns- the things that got him into Stanford, the things that make him Chuck. And it isn’t an experimental government pill or zen-warrior training downloaded into his brain that enables him to shoot, and kill, Agent Daniel Shaw. It is sheer emotion- his love for Sarah, the realization that promising you would do anything for someone, and then stepping up and doing it, cannot be two separate things. Indeed, true to his nature, Chuck brings it down to the wire, trying with desperate earnestness to talk Shaw out of crossing this line, to save his career and life and give Daniel a chance for redemption. It is only once this has failed and Shaw cannot turn back that Chuck himself presses forward, doing that one thing that in three seasons he has been unwilling and unable to do.

‘Chuck vs the Other Guy’ is not just about Chuck taking on Shaw. It’s about Chuck taking on Chuck and becoming a real spy. He assembles his team, he takes necessary actions, he does it all for the right reasons. He finally puts to bed the panic and indecision that has plagued his graduation from playing at being a secret agent- and adult- and really being one. And he does it knowing that the act of saving Sarah may lose her to him- since it took passing his Red Test for Sarah to truly give up on him. Killing another person was Sarah’s bottom line, the act that signified the Chuck she’d fallen for was gone forever. Learning it had been a hoax, that Casey had completed Chuck’s Red Test for him, was visibly one of the greatest reliefs of her life, a beautiful moment from Yvonne Strahovski. We all know that these events can’t possibly go over well when he recounts them to her, although we also know that somehow they must, since the pair can’t come out of this with any remaining doubts about their love or need for each other.

We’re not disappointed. Neither is Sarah, who sees Chuck’s actions for what they are- the attainment of maturity motivated by love, not the attainment of rank motivated by the nagging self-doubt of boyhood.

It would have been a brilliant end to the season, and possibly the series, and for Chuck fans will stand as a landmark episode. The quality of the storytelling here is unsurpassed by any previous episodes. and the entire cast and crew should be extremely proud. Fans should be excited, also, as Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz said after the episode that, being given a further six episodes to film for the season, they had no recourse but to step up their game and meet the new standard they had set for themselves.

Fans of John “How Did I Get To Be This Good Looking” Casey (I can come up with these aaall day) have a lot to look forward to, as we’ll be seeing follow up on the matter of his family in these six new episodes, as well as Casey back in uniform. It was a gratified and enthusiastic crowd that greeted the Chuck cast and creators as they ascended the stage at Wonder Con, just as I’m sure it will be a similar viewing audience tonight who rallies for a fourth season. Zachary Levi besought the fans to watch it live, and tell their friends to watch it live, especially the ones with a Nielsen box. Or just hack Nielsen. If they’re going to give us more episodes like ‘Chuck vs the Other Guy’, or just maintain the level at which Chuckhas been operating for the past three years, I’d say it’s the least we can do.

I would have been happy with this being the final episode, but I am happiER that it isn't. I know each episode after this can't pack the same emotional punch or important moments, because this episode had a whole season building up to it, but I believe that they can match themselves in that way, at least- they can build important storylines, and reach this sort of point again.

I just loved this episode. And I have to say, watching it with a big audience was extremely rewarding.

Nice review. A few points, though. Shaw TURNED into a Ring member. When he sent Evelyn in undercover to the group, Graham figured she was a true agent. Sarah then ordered to kill her. When they hinted a Team Bartowski member would be turned, they went after Shaw. Showing him that video of Sarah killing Evelyn probably did it.

Yes, absolutely. The review is operating from this episode's get go, at which point Shaw has already become an agent for The Ring, but you're right, I didn't mean to make it sound as if he always had been one.

I'd say for me “Chuck vs. the Colonel” is right up there with this one, perhaps even better as far as excitement goes, and even though I knew he would likely get it back, I'll never forget the immense relief I felt for Chuck when he got his wish of removing the Intersect from his head, but… “The Other Guy” has SO many satisfying moments, too — funny (drunk & despairing Chuck tying up Morgan with his video game controllers), silly (Chuck cancelling the tank), poignant (Casey's talk with Chuck on the flight to Paris), sad (Sarah realizing where Shaw had brought her and that it was all a lie), monumental (Chuck shooting Shaw) and of course, romantic and sweet (Chuck and Sarah's final scene). What an episode. Great job by all.

I hope NBC keeps this show. It has so many stories yet to tell, for all the characters involved, and I really want to see them!

I am so disappointed with this episode. I was hoping for some reason why Sarah chose to be with Shaw, and why she came up with ridiculous reasons not to be with Chuck. That was what bothered me practically this whole season. I thought there might be something deeper there, like perhaps she suspected Shaw was a double agent, and had to sell that she had fallen for him to figure out what was going on. We were promised over and over that there would be an explanation and closure, but I got none of that from this episode. The entire season has been one giant mess, I'm sorry I've been watching all this time and that I took the writers word for it that there would be a payoff.

This episode was everything I'd hoped for out of Chuck and had, after some of the weaker 'will-he/won't-he-flash' episodes of the earlier season, despaired of ever seeing; but then just as you said, Chuck finds them not because of some piece of tech, or plot device… he saves them because he is a SMART MAN. It was that fact that I worried, pre-season, that the new Intersect 2.0 would take away from the show, and to see it back in force, as the saving grace, was such a relief.

Now to just find a bad guy he can't intersect beat up. Well, Shaw in this ep, like you say – he shoots because he has the emotional resolution to shoot (almost a nice call back to the 'no flash required' moment of the previous ep, with a tranq gun), but in the earlier fight there was still the 'emotions, intersect no worky.' I just want to see elite training beat the stuff implanted in his head. Is that weird? It may be weird.

Mostly, though, I am glad to see this episode. It would have been a great ending, and I'm excited to see where they go. I would have been worried, but… it was phenomenal. It was everything I wanted.

The intersect did work, Shaw was just better. He also threw Chuck off balance by trying to use Chuck's defensive energy to stab Sarah. Chuck gave up some of his position by trying to prevent the knife from getting either him or Sarah and then Shaw knocked him wonky. Sarah and Casey can tell when Chuck flashes, Shaw apparently can”t. This was part of the theme of the episode: The intersect does not solve all problems!!

To me Sarah was with Shaw because he was emotionally comforting, they had so much in common, and she was physically attracted to him too. The man was HOT. He was her perfect match… in another reality, under different circumstances. I actually wanted her to stay with him, but things turned out different. Plus this is Chuck's show.

On E Online, they said this season is going for another 6 episodes yeah? I don't want Chuck to end, it's an emotionally packed, extremely funny show and I think there is quite a base of fans not ready to see it go just yet.